The killing of a 'Narcos' location scout underscores the complexity of Mexico's criminal underworld

A police officer patrols outside a house where 11 people were found dead in the city of Tizayuca in Hidalgo, Mexico, July 13, 2017.

source

REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Carlos Muñoz Portal, 37, was found slain in his car on an unnamed
dirt road in the community of San Bartolo Actopan in northeast
Mexico state on September 11.

Muñoz was reportedly in the area, near the border of Mexico state
and Hidalgo, to take photos as a part of his job scouting
locations for the fourth season of the Netflix series "Narcos."

The circumstances of his death and who could have been involved
remain unclear, but the complexity of the case underscores the
dense web of criminal activity and organizations present in that
part of central Mexico.

Muñoz - who had worked on films like "Man on Fire" and "Spectre"
during his more than decade-long career - was found in his car
with multiple gunshot wounds. The car itself had damage from
bullets and was found crashed into a cactus, suggesting to
investigators he was fleeing pursuers at the time he was killed.

"Given the deserted [area] we don't have witnesses," a spokesman
for the state's attorney general said. "We don't
know if he was in Hidalgo and from there they followed him or if
he was in Mexico state and intended to flee toward Hidalgo."

A friend of Muñoz's told El País that
the presence of an outsider taking photos may have drawn
attention. "Maybe they thought he was collecting information and
they started following him in a car," the friend said.

Though the circumstances around Muñoz's death remain unclear, the
area where he was found has become one of the most violent in the
country, driven in large part by major criminal organizations
competing for control of drug-trafficking organizations as well
as small groups responsible for crimes like theft and extortion.

Central Mexico, which includes the states of Hidalgo and Mexico,
saw its federal-crime rate, which includes organized crime and
kidnappings, rise from 74 per
100,000 people in 2014 to 77 per 100,000 in 2015.

Mexico state's nearly 16.2 million inhabitants make it the most
populous of Mexico's 32 states, home to almost twice as many
people as the next biggest state, Mexico City, which it wraps
around like a horseshoe.

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Christopher Woody/Google Maps

With such a large population, Mexico state usually sees more
homicides, but the body count has been driven up by organized
crime and impunity, among other factors. The 1,362 homicides
there during the first seven months of the year exceed the 1,326
seen there during the same period last year.

The state's 11,749 homicides
between September 2011 and June 2017 - the term of governor
Eruviel Avila Villegas of the center-right PRI - made it one of
the most violent in the country, and the 254 kidnappings reported
during 2016 set a new record for the state.

Violence against women is especially common in Mexico state; it
was 9 percentage points
above the national average. Between January 2015 and December
2016, there were 626 women killed in homicides there, of which
296 cases were considered
femicides - the deliberate killing of a woman. Of those cases
however, only 10 ended with someone sentenced for the crime.

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Women carry a banner that reads "#We want ourselves alive" in Spanish during a protest of violence against women, in Mexico City, September 17, 2017.

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(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

National-security officials have called Mexico state a "battlefield" for
organized-crime groups, largely competing over drug-trafficking
routes and networks. In 2015, the State Commission for Citizen
Security said five criminal groups operated in Mexico state,
including La Familia Michoacan and several smaller groups. The
total is likely higher; the powerful and ascendant Jalisco New
Generation cartel was reportedly present there in 2015 as well.

Cells from major criminal groups, including the Zetas, the Gulf
cartel, and the Beltran Leyva Organization, are reportedly
present in Ecatepec, a
heavily populated and highly violent municipality bordering
Mexico City. Two times in the last three months, government
buildings in Ecatepec have been robbed, and
the perpetrators have gotten away with dozens of police
weapons.

In the face of an often unresponsive government, vigilantism has
also increased in parts
of Mexico state, with locals taking it upon themselves to
catch and sometimes
kill suspected criminals.

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Christopher Woody/Mexican government data

Hidalgo, northeast of Mexico state, has a decidedly different
security picture, but one that is trending in a negative
direction.

The 133 homicides there between January and July this year were
nearly 50% more than the 90 over the same period last year.

The state's position between the center of the country and
valuable trafficking territory in the northeast makes it
appealing to criminal groups.

In years past, the Zetas cartel was thought to have deep ties to
Hidalgo's political class. In May, the governor said the state
was threatened by "forces immersed" in
organized crime and drug trafficking.

Hidalgo has also seen several high-profile incidents of
violent crime this year, including the killing of 11
people, among them two minors, by assailants with knives at a
child's birthday party in Tizayuca in July.

Hidalgo has also seen an increase in
robberies of commercial and passenger vehicles - the
Mexico-Queretaro highway that passes through the state has been
called one of the dangerous in Mexico.

Tula, the site of a Pemex oil refinery in Higaldo northwest of
where Muñoz was killed, has become a hub for
oil theft, a lucrative enterprise that has pulled in criminal
groups, ambitious citizens, and corrupt officials.

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A policeman inspects barrels containing stolen diesel fuel, stored in a tire-repair shop, during an operation in the municipality of Apodaca near Monterrey, Mexico, July 4, 2011.

source

Reuters

A June survey by Mexico's statistical agency found 63.4% of the
residents of Pachuca, the Hidalgo state capital, felt insecure -
higher than just three months before and nearly as high as more
violent areas like Mazatlan in Sinaloa state or Ciudad Juarez.

"In short, we are here before a state that looks calm in
comparison to almost all its neighbors but which shows early
signs of deterioration," Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope
wrote of Hidalgo
this summer. "A community where 11 people were just massacred
with knives at a children's party has something that is not good,
to put it mildly."

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Residents look on as policemen patrol during a joint security operation in Ecatepec, on the outskirts of Mexico City, January 22, 2013.

source

Reuters

In an area as sparsely populated and riven by criminality as
northeast Mexico state, solving a crime like Muñoz's killing will
be a challenge, particularly for Mexican law enforcement, which
at the state level often lacks resources and is highly comprised
by criminal influence.

Muñoz's presence could have aroused suspicion among local
residents, who may have seen him as a potential cartel member. A
local gang may have suspected him of being an interloper from
another criminal group.